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Country Life Magazine – March 19, 2025 Preview

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Cover of Country Life 19 March 2025

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (March 19, 2025): The cover of Country Life’s 19 March 2025 issue, featuring Wollerton Old Hall Garden in Shropshire,

Building on a dream

Nicola Taylor tells Tiffany Daneff how she ‘picked up a spade and carried on’ where her father left off in a Northamptonshire wood

It starts with a seed

Is there anything more satisfying than growing a plant from seed? Find out how with John Hoyland

The ground crew

Christopher Stocks meets the unsung heroes and heroines of horticulture who keep Britain’s best gardens in mint condition

gardener

Shocking pinks

Tilly Ware recommends a trip to Cornwall’s Calamazag nursery to pick up the perfect pinks

United colours of Rolls-Royce

Toby Keel finds the British marque making a bold, banana-yellow statement as he gets behind the wheel of the new Series II Ghost

A uniform approach

Never try to appear fashionable or attempt to look young — Dylan Jones shares his golden rules on how to dress in your sixties

Hare’s to you

Murderous, mad and magnificent: the hare is a fascinating figure in art, discovers Michael Prodger

hares
Spreads from Country Life 19 March 2025

Sir James MacMillan’s favourite painting

The composer chooses a bold and moving religious painting

The architect for me

In the first of two articles, Clive Aslet examines the double act of architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and client Reginald McKenna

Take it with a pinch of salt

Deborah Nicholls-Lee examines the salt-loving plants coming into their own in a changing climate

A night on the tiles

Harry Pearson finds drunken may-hem in the history of dominoes

dominoes

The good stuff

A vase is a Mother’s Day gift that keeps on giving, says Hetty Lintell

Interiors

Amelia Thorpe applauds the updating of a Wiltshire sitting room, as Arabella Youens asks: are you sitting comfortably?

Sour to the people

Fish and chips wouldn’t be fish and chips without a glug of malt vinegar, argues Rob Crossan

chips

Pho sure

Asian noodle soup tempts Tom Parker Bowles with its thrilling symphony of fragrant flavours

Foraging

Handle with care when picking hogweed and cow parsley for the kitchen, warns John Wright

Arts & antiques

Carlo Passino throws the spotlight on the engaging drawings of literary legend Victor Hugo

Directors take centre stage

Shakespeare and Chekhov are given an imaginative new spin — and Michael Billington approves

And much more

Culture, History, Homes, Magazines, Travel

Country Life Magazine – March 12, 2025 Preview

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cover of Country Life 12 March 2025

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (March 11, 2025): The cover of Country Life’s 12 March 2025 issue, featuring The Garden Hall at Pitshill House, West Sussex, as photographed by Paul Whitbread.

Water you wading for?

The village pond, once the hub around which community life revolved, is being reinvented as a ‘superpower’ habitat for rare species, finds Vicky Liddell

fish

Sorry seems to be the easiest word

Deborah Nicholls-Lee makes no apology for asking why there is nothing more British than saying sorry (up to eight times a day, we regret to say)

Two’s company, three’s a crowd farmer

Jane Wheatley is impressed by a new European project linking farmers direct to consumers in an effort to ensure fair pricing

Peak sugar

Harry Pearson is sweet on Kendal Mint Cake, the original energy snack that is still going strong after conquering Everest and crossing the Antarctic

kendal mint cake

Arts & antiques

Nature’s beauty and vulnerability are laid bare in a new exhibition at Chatsworth in Derbyshire, as Carla Passino discovers

Josh Eggleton’s favourite painting

The chef and restaurant owner chooses a contemporary collage that keeps the viewer guessing

Like cats on a hot tin roof  

A feline stand-off in a Wiltshire farmyard has echoes of tax and trade talks for Minette Batters 

Gothic splendours

John Goodall hails the rebirth of Victorian gem Allerton Castle in North Yorkshire, some two decades after a devastating fire

castle

The legacy

Kate Green lauds the brilliant, but tragically brief blooming of cello prodigy Jacqueline du Pré

The red army

Ian Morton reveals why we don’t want wood ants in our pants

The good stuff

Pretty pastels are back for spring, so think pink, says Hetty Lintell

pink things

Bring me everlasting flowers

Catriona Gray meets a man crafting blooms from coppiced hazel

If you want colour…

Picture-perfect primulas offer an easy way to festoon the garden with a kaleidoscope of colour, suggests Charles Quest-Ritson

Foraging

John Wright savours the peppery crunch and kick of black mustard, but he’ll never pick it in Yeovil

It’s a Scream

The wild work of Edvard Munch betrayed a troubled soul, but the Norwegian artist found salvation in Nature, declares Jessica Lack

munch article

Arts, Culture, Homes, Magazines, Tourism, Travel

Country Life Magazine – March 5, 2025 Preview

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Cover of Country Life 5 March 2025

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (March 4, 2025): The latest issue features ‘The enfant terribile’ – Michelangelo; London’s best bakeries and why 1775 rocked; Charles Dance; Cheltenham and kitchen confidential…

The year the stars came out

A host of luminaries that were born in 1775 still shape British identity some 250 years on, as Matthew Dennison discovers

A horse walks into a bar…

Jack Watkins raises a glass to the Cheltenham superstars immortalised in the bars and restaurants at Prestbury Park

Spread from Country Life 5 March 2025

Interiors

Amelia Thorpe cooks up a real treat with the latest inspiration and innovations for the kitchen

London Life

– Amie Elizabeth White celebrates 100 years of the Dickens museum, plus Country Life’s guide to the best baked goods in the capital

Arts & antiques

Charles Dance talks to Carla Passino about Michelangelo, mentoring and why the Sistine chapel is like playing King Lear

The good, the bad and the ugly

Michael Hall delves into the genius of Michelangelo, at once the enfant prodige and enfant terribile of the Renaissance

Spread from Country Life 5 March 2025

Simon Martin’s favourite painting

The art-gallery director selects a beguiling 17th-century miniature revealing a connection to Nature

A regal renewal

John Goodall hails the revival of Restoration House in Kent, a magnificent property that welcomed Charles II in 1660

Spread from Country Life 5 March 2025

The legacy

Agnes Stamp hails the ‘British Barnum’ Charles Cruft, whose dog show is still best in class

Shiver me timbers

The once-popular black poplar could be our secret weapon in the battle against climate change, finds Vicky Liddell

Spread from Country Life 5 March 2025

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell’s top tips on what to wear to the Cheltenham Festival

And it was all yellow

Charles Quest-Ritson brightens his day with the cheerful flowers of the ever-dependable forsythia

Sharp practice

The thorny old issue of pruning roses, with Charles Quest-Ritson

Foraging

Is tapping birch-tree sap worth the bother, asks John Wright

Travel

Emma Love shares the latest cruise news, Imogen West-Knights finds everything shipshape in the South of France, John Niven follows in the wake of Mr Mississippi Mark Twain and Pamela Goodman’s birthday treats take on a life of their own

Culture, History, Homes, Magazines, Travel

Country Life Magazine – February 19, 2025 Preview

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COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (February 18, 2025):

The legacy

Kate Green celebrates the Revd Gilbert White, the original ecologist whose 1789 book on flora and fauna has never been out of print

Mad as a box of frogs

Our amphibious friends were once thought to possess mystical powers and they now aid the advance of medicine, as Ian Morton discovers

The ghost of golden daffodils

David Jones traces the fall and rise of the Tenby daffodil — all but extinct in the wild, but making a return as a cultivated bloom

Country Life 19 February 2025

The lure of Venice

Matthew Dennison investigates Britain’s long-standing love affair with the Italian maritime republic, fuelled by Canaletto’s enchanting, kaleidoscopic vedute

Playing the fool

Who could have foreseen the influence of tarot cards down the ages? Deborah Nicholls-Lee delves into decks and divination

Dr Ximena Fuentes Torrijo’s favourite painting

The Ambassador of Chile picks a vast, dreamlike Surrealist work that portrays a turbulent world.

A sense of delight

John Goodall marvels at the outstanding array of new and restored buildings on the grand Aldourie estate in Inverness-shire

19 February 2025

Snakes and snails and puppy-dog tales

Matthew Dennison pays tribute to Peter and Iona Opie, who pre-served much-loved folklore and fairy tales for future generations

The good stuff

Work out in style with Hetty Lintell’s elegant exercise picks

Interiors

Amelia Thorpe shares the best of London Design Week wares, plus an elegant room with a view

Shaping the view

Tiffany Daneff admires the vista of rural Northamptonshire from the delightful Modernist garden created for a converted cart house

Foraging

Listen in as John Wright shares his thoughts on wood ears, the fungus with a gelatinous texture

Arts & antiques

Thomas Girtin’s exquisite landscapes were a match for Turner before the artist was cut down in his prime, reveals Carla Passino

History triumphs over invention

A brilliantly acted historical play conquers overproduced Greek mythology for Michael Billington

Arts & Literature, Culture, Homes, Magazines, Reviews

Country Life Magazine – February 12, 2025 Preview

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Van Gogh's bedroom on the cover of Country Life

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (February 11, 2025): ‘The Fine Art Issue’ features ‘What makes an Old Master?’….

Let the art rule the head

The UK’s status as a world leader in creative industries will be in peril if we fail to nurture art-and-design skills in our schools, argues Tristram Hunt

Let’s fall in love

Laura Parker investigates the boxing, croaking, crooning, dad dancing and even murder that passes for courtship ritual in the animal kingdom

Beauty and the blimp

Could a new airship designed in Britain deliver eco-friendly aviation, asks Charles Harris

Country Life 12 February 2025

Interiors

Amelia Thorpe picks out glass acts in world of garden rooms, greenhouses and orangeries

Soup-er charged

Tom Parker Bowles reveals how to beef up a boozy, hot-as-Hades French onion soup

A leap in the dark

The play of light and shade has long defined Western art. Michael Hall examines what Constable called ‘the chiaroscuro of nature’

The Duke of Richmond’s favourite painting

The owner of Goodwood picks a work that reflects the sporting history of the West Sussex estate

Three wishes for food and farming

Minette Batters calls for the UK to set a self-sufficiency target for producing its own food

Nature and nurture

In the final article of a three-part series, Tim Richardson ponders the innovation and imagination behind the wonderful grounds at Bramham Park, West Yorkshire

Bramham Park

The legacy

Amie Elizabeth White applauds altruistic John Ritchie Findlay, who paved the way for Scotland’s National Portrait Gallery

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell backs a winner with a range of horseshoe jewellery

Light work

Tiffany Daneff is dazzled by the transformation of a dark London garden into a light-filled oasis

Foraging

Winter mushrooms are a rarity, but the striking velvet shank earns John Wright’s approval as a welcome addition to game pie

Arts & antiques

Carla Passino marvels at the masterpieces amassed by Swiss collector Oskar Reinhart as the works go on show in London

Wick me up before you go-go

The wick trimmer’s work was never done in candlelit times, discovers Matthew Dennison

Culture, History, Homes, Magazines, Travel

Country Life Magazine – February 5, 2025 Preview

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Cover of Country Life February 5, 2025

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (February 5, 2025): The ‘Travel Issue’ features The Romance and Risk of a Big Adventure….

The inimitable Wodehouse

Roderick Easdale marvels at the ‘pure word music’ of P. G. Wodehouse, whose aristocratic comedies are still treasured as English-language classics

All I have to do is dream

Nod off with Tree Carr as she investigates what it means when our sleeping hours are filled with enchanting visions of wildlife and the natural world

London Life

· Giles Kime admires The Goring’s stylish new look

· All you need to know in the capital this month

· Arabella Youens visits the best second-hand markets

Travel

· Richard MacKichan dives into Canada

· Kate Eshelby treks across Pakistan

· Rosie Paterson takes a chance on Italy

· Adam Hay-Nicholls follows in Bond’s tyre tracks in the Swiss Alps

Country Life 5 February 2025

· Rosie Paterson ventures into the US wilderness

· Hetty Lintell selects top travel accessories

· Christopher Wallace relives a Cape Town-to-Cairo adventure

· Pamela Goodman visits a faithful old geyser

Jason Goodwin’s favourite painting

The writer and historian selects a pencil drawing alive with energy

Ruin and rebirth

In the second of three articles, John Goodall tells how Bramham Park in West Yorkshire rose from the ashes of an 1828 fire

Country Life 5 February 2025

The legacy

Octavia Pollock places David Garrick centre stage for his role in revolutionising the theatre

Interiors

The latest lamps and lighting options, with Amelia Thorpe

Pottery winners

Tiffany Daneff talks terracotta with Beth Tarling, a Cornish collector with a passion for flowerpots

Foraging

All flash and no flavour — John Wright pans the scarlet elfcup

Arts & antiques

Carla Passino reveals the tale of the Royal Academy’s Prince and ponders the identity of the sitter for a 16th-century Venus

Let there be light

Matthew Dennison enlightens us on the history of the chandelier from its origins as a candlelit ‘crown of shimmering gold’

Alright, petal

Catriona Gray meets the talented botanical illustrators celebrating 30 years of chronicling Chelsea Physic Garden’s plant collection

Culture, History, Homes, Magazines, Reviews, Travel

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE – January 29, 2025 Issue

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COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (January 28, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Ready, Steady, Go!’ – The wonderful thing about Springers…

Full of the joys of spring(ers)

The non-stop English springer is still our number one working spaniel, reveals Matthew Dennison, as he delves into this enthusiastic, energetic breed

Snake, rattle and roll

Rob Crossan investigates the deeply spiritual origins of that enduring family board-game favourite Snakes and Ladders

Heard it on the radio

The wireless broke new ground as the first form of home-based mass entertainment and is still going strong in the age of the smart speaker, finds Ben Lerwill

Friends with benefits

Nematodes are a natural way to halt the march of all manner of garden pests and Charles Quest-Ritson is a convert

Mould and behold

Josiah Wedgwood was a brilliant businessman with a remarkable social conscience. Tristram Hunt assesses his life and legacy

Catch us if you can

Owain Jones sizes up six of the best as he picks out the players to watch in this year’s Guinness Six Nations rugby extravaganza

Roger Morgan-Grenville’s favourite painting

The conservation campaigner selects a work that inspired his lifelong obsession with seabirds

A Palladian premonition

Richard Hewlings offers a fresh analysis of the architecture at Bramham Park, a highly original West Yorkshire country house

The legacy

Kate Green remembers Robert FitzRoy, the founder of the Met Office whose name lives on in the BBC’s Shipping Forecast

Dear country diary

Paul Fleckney flicks through The Guardian’s Country Diary, which has offered a snapshot of rural life for more than 120 years

Interiors

The best stoves and fireplaces picked by Amelia Thorpe, plus the alternatives to burning logs

Luxury

Hetty Lintell’s top timepieces and James Haskell’s favourite things

Magnificent mahonias

Charles Quest-Ritson makes the case for mahonias, arguing that their pleasantly scented flowers are a seasonal delight

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson pairs peppery horseradish with salmon fillets

Ring-dove beauteous!

John Lewis-Stempel coos over the much-maligned wood pigeon, that canny, keen-eyed and fast-flying stalwart of our countryside

Culture, Gardens, Homes, Magazines, Travel

Country Life Magazine – January 15, 2025 Preview

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COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE (January 14, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Totally Tropical’ – The gardens of Tresco, where anything grows…

Totally tropical taste

Tiffany Daneff savours the exotic surroundings of Tresco Abbey Garden, where the temperate climate of the Isles of Scilly has created a colourful paradise

Box of tricks

The devastation of box blight is well documented, but what can we do to save our hedges?  Charles Quest-Ritson investigates

Now that’s what I call pulling power

The ox may have disappeared from the fields of Britain, but that mighty beast of burden still plays a huge role in agriculture across the globe, finds Laura Parker

 ‘Make way for Her Majesty’s gloves!’

You’ve got to hand it to Cornelia James, suggests Katy Birchall, as she recounts the incredible rise to prominence of our late Queen’s favourite glove-maker

Amie Atkinson’s favourite painting

The actress selects a heavenly landscape that has fired her imagination since childhood

The legacy

Tiffany Daneff pays tribute to Beth Chatto, whose ‘right plant, right place’ philosophy inspired her Essex dry garden

Top seats

The best chairs and benches for the garden, with Amelia Thorpe

Cool schools

Non Morris taps into the expert knowledge of Troy Scott-Smith, Charles Dowding and Tom Stuart-Smith as she digs into some of Britain’s best garden courses

Town versus Earl

John Goodall charts the history of The Lord Leycester and its outstanding medieval buildings in Warwickshire that have been given a whole new lease of life

See you on the top deck

To celebrate the centenary of London’s covered double-decker bus, Rob Crossan hops aboard for a whistle-stop tour of our capital’s public transport

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell keeps her cool with a sparkling selection of jewellery inspired by ice

Interiors

Arabella Youens admires a sitting room in London and Amelia Thorpe answers the call of the wild with animal accessories

Kitchen garden cook

Earthy leeks take centre stage in winter for Melanie Johnson

Be still, my beating art

An obsession with Emma, Lady Hamilton led painter George Romney to produce his finest pieces, reveals Carla Passino